The Housemaid (Hanyo, 1960)

[Dan8700]

Just noticed this at YesAsia!! Fabulous news, looks like a great, great package (sorry, Criterion, haha ).


YA lists Eng, Jap, Fre and Korean subs. Street date: Dec 16. Day one!
http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-ho...0-en/info.html

[p_cqvist]

Wow, that's quite the release. It also features The Box of Death and I Am a Truck, both of which I don't think has been available on physical media before (or at all?).

[McCrutchy]

From YesAsia's details, it looks like the audio commentary, the short film I am a Truck, and the "Directors" featurette will have English subtitles, but then The Box of Death will have none?

That seems strange...

[Dan8700]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

From YesAsia's details, it looks like the audio commentary, the short film I am a Truck, and the "Directors" featurette will have English subtitles, but then The Box of Death will have none?

That seems strange...

I believe/hope that's an error.

[p_cqvist]

Yes, it would surely be odd as they went out of their way to sub everything else.

Great news about The March of Fools! I haven't seen it either but, like you, I've heard nice things about it. This, together with The Housemaid and Aimless Bullet, is usually mentioned when it comes to the best Korean films of all time. But of course, that's always debatable.

[darry]

Are Plain Archive involved in this? If so, should be awesome.

[nello]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

From YesAsia's details, it looks like the audio commentary, the short film I am a Truck, and the "Directors" featurette will have English subtitles, but then The Box of Death will have none?

That seems strange...

The audio track of "The Box of Death (1955)" has been lost. So there will be no audio or subtitle options for this feature.

[p_cqvist]

Originally Posted by nello

The audio track of "The Box of Death (1955)" has been lost. So there will be no audio or subtitle options for this feature.

Figured it would be either that or the film not having an audio track in the first place, which would've been unlikely. Thanks for the info.

[Le Grande Blu]

The Korean Film institute have a Youtube channel, where they've uploaded over 90 classic Korean films, with optional English subs. Lots of them are restored too. It's a good way to check out titles which may end up finding their way onto Blu ray in the future:

https://www.youtube.com/user/KoreanFilm/videos

[Dan8700]

Originally Posted by p_cqvist

Wow, that's quite the release. It also features The Box of Death and I Am a Truck, both of which I don't think has been available on physical media before (or at all?).

They've never been released before methinks! Also, judging from YA, virtually all the extras come subtitled in English, including the commentary with PARK CHAN-WOOK!!

And here's hoping the transfer has been improved, as the Criterion one is very problematic:
https://images.static-bluray.com/rev...7_37_1080p.jpg
https://images2.static-bluray.com/re...7_36_1080p.jpg

- 음성해설
박찬욱(영화감독), 이동진(영화평론가)
Commentary by Park Chan-wook (Film Director), Lee Dong-jin (Film Critic)
자막선택 Subtitles 무자막 None / 한국어 Korean / 영어 English

- 감독들 김기영을 말하다(연출 김홍준) Directors on Kim Ki-young(Directed by kim Hong-joon) (48min.)
자막 Subtitles : 무자막 None / 한국어 Korean / 영어 English / 불어 French 일어 Japanese

- 죽엄의 상자 The Box of Death (79min.)

- 나는 트럭이다 I am a Truck (18min.)
자막 Subtitles : 무자막 None / 한국어 Korean / 영어 English

Lastly, Blue Kino are releasing on the same day a more recent classic, Ha Gil-jong's comedy The March Of Fools (which I haven't seen, but they say it's a masterpiece...)
http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-ma...0-en/info.html

[Streetlight]

Can anyone else corroborate whether the Korean BD is better than the Criterion BD, and if the choppy sections were corrected in another BD?

[Streetlight]

How are the French and Japanese Blu-rays?

[puffymc]

I have the 2025 Japanese bluray, it's a single layer BD25. Main feature is 21.3GB, runtime 1:51:24. One of the title cards states this is a 2008 Korean Film Archive restoration, supported by World Cinema Foundation.

The first choppy section starts at 42:37 for me. There are a few low image quality scenes, some look AI-interpolated. One of them starts at 46:32. No issues with the rest of the film, image quality is fine.

Looks like there's also a Korean release with English subtitles, I had to "add" external subtitles to my JP copy.